Having been on the agenda in Finnish policy-making for a decade, tuition fees for students outside the European Union and the European Economic Area became reality in the beginning of 2016. Drawing on institutional theory the current article tracks this development through the analysis of documents and interviews on different levels. The argumentation on the top level more strongly reflects internationalisation as marketisation, whereas on the grassroots level the focus tends to be on internationalisation as the reorganisation of traditional academic activities. Similarly, whereas national-level discourse shows more concern about global competitiveness, departmental logic focuses on integration, academic communication, studying and the curriculum.